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There are fears that the historic China clay train depot - which houses the last railway turntable in Cornwall - could disappear. Residents in the St Blazey and Par area have expressed concerns after the 150-year-old depot had been put on the market by operators DB Cargo.

They discovered the listing in an issue of Railway Magazine with no official word going out to the community from either DB Cargo or China clay firm Imerys.

In the magazine article DB Cargo said it had shifted its maintenance and crew base to Goonbarrow instead because the cost of maintaining the St Blazey site does not make "good economic sense" for the three China clay train coming through a week from Imerys, all bound to Stoke-on-Trent.

The number of railway turntables in the UK is dwindling and if this one were to disapear the nearest would be in Dartmouth, Devon, then Minehead, Somerset. A spokesman for DB Cargo told the magazine that the site, complete with train turntable, will be put on sale "either for rail or for non-rail use" with its future use being dependant on the buyer.

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Jimmy James, who lives five minutes away and happens to know a lot about train operations, through his job with the heritage Bodmin Railway, said there had been weeks of rumour circulating around St Blazey and Par about the future of the site. He wondered why there had been no public announcement made by either company.

He told CornwallLive: "The depot has been part of the fabric of St. Blazey/Par for well over a century and once employed hundreds of people, not just in the operating of trains but also as a maintenance base.

"For the last two decades it has gradually been run down, and now closure has actually happened without any announcements let alone consultation with employees and with the local community. The rumours have finally been confirmed, and it has all happened under the radar, so to speak.

"Part of the problem has been the decline of the China clay industry itself. There isn't the same amount of china clay being exported as there was 25 years ago. There are now only three China clay trains departing the Duchy each week, whereas St Blazey depot has the capacity to handle many more.

"DB Cargo has reduced its operation to only one locomotive based in Cornwall, and moving it to the Imerys facility at Goonbarrow is obviously a cost cutting exercise. The service provided to Imerys has become unreliable, and the fear is that railway operations will become redundant, with the consequent impact of clay moving by road hauliers on our inadequate and congested road system."

Mr James added: "The second impact is that of developers moving in and construction taking place on polluted industrial ground, which is only just above sea level and very much part of the floodplain.

"St Blazey/Par has already had a huge amount of house building been done over the last decade, with very little improvement to the existing infrastructure. Hence water and sewerage systems being overwhelmed, schools and surgeries not coping with the increase in population, chaotic road traffic."

He questioned the future use of the land for housing when it is heavily polluted and is also in a flood plain.

Cornwall Council said this was nothing to do with them so would not comment on the matter. We have asked DB Cargo and Imerys for a comment.

A spokesperson for Imerys confirmed that its contractor DB Cargo had decided to review and reset its base but insisted it won't impact its operations.

They said: "We will continue to use rail as part of our logistics infrastructure across Cornwall, into the port of Fowey and beyond. Fowey is unique as a Cornish deep water port with an operating rail head.

"Our outsourced contract rail provider DB has taken the decision to review and reset its base - that is beyond our control and will not change our day to day operations."

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